This module seeks to encourage teachers to see themselves as writers. This is one way of improving their own writing skills and readying themselves to teach writing. It also seeks to link the reading habit to the act of writing. The ideas came from the expressed needs of student teachers in Trinidad and Tobago.

Introduction to this module

This module contains the following sections: Read each one and raise questions that will help to develop it further.
* A mindset for writing: Caribbean authors and you* Reading in order to write
* Journaling and personal expressive writing* Getting the writing habit and resources for writing
This module hopes to answer the need of some young teachers in Trinidad and Tobago to be better writers in order to teach writing. In this regard they asked several questions. The following were among them.

A mindset for writing with caribbean authors

How can we use our writing skills to help our students to acquire Standard English?"
"I left secondary school many years ago so I am a bit 'rusty'do you think it will be hard for me to pick up writing again?"
"Can we use readings from Caribbean authors as a starting point for our classes?""I hope you are the only person who will be reading what I write."
The aim is to have teachers see themselves as writers, in order to gain confidence in the act of writing and to link reading to writing.Here is Samuel Selvon, a weaver with words in "My Girl and the City":

"I wooed my girl mostly on her way home from work, and I talked a great deal. Often, it was as if I had never spoken; I heard my words echo in deep caverns of thought, as if they hung about like cigarette smoke in a still room, missionnless; or else they were lost forever in the sounds of the city....In the crowded bus...I shot words over my shoulder, across seats...they found passage between "fares please" and once I got to writing things and pushing my hand over two seats....there was the urgent need to communicate before we parted....All these things I say, I said, waving my hand in the air as if to catch the words floating about me and give them mission"(Nasta and Rutherford, p.96).

One can choose excerpts from the works of other Caribbean authors and become familiar with them. The excerpt above from Samuel Selvon speaks of the magic of using words, of words being given a mission : to woo Selvon's girl, to communicate his feelings with urgency. We too, can weave words into stories, journal entries and poems with the confidence and skill of a Selvon or a Walcott, so giving to our words a mission and a life of their own. We can read our selected excerpts aloud several times a week and jot down notes to ourselves or questions that we might have. While doing this one should discover the mission and the meaning of the author's words. We can roam the landscapes and seascapes they create and be inspired to want to create our own. Q: What have you discovered about the writings of your favourite Caribbean author? You'll want to investigate too the growing body of
Caribbean Children's Literature and build your own lists.

Questions & Answers

anyone know any internet site where one can find nanotechnology papers?

fullerene is a bucky ball aka Carbon 60 molecule. It was name by the architect Fuller. He design the geodesic dome. it resembles a soccer ball.

Tarell

what is the actual application of fullerenes nowadays?

Damian

That is a great question Damian. best way to answer that question is to Google it. there are hundreds of applications for buck minister fullerenes, from medical to aerospace. you can also find plenty of research papers that will give you great detail on the potential applications of fullerenes.

Tarell

Join the discussion...

what is the Synthesis, properties,and applications of carbon nano chemistry

Yeah, it is a pain to say the least. You basically have to heat the substarte up to around 1000 degrees celcius then pass phosphene gas over top of it, which is explosive and toxic by the way, under very low pressure.